Words from Tanzania

We have been living in Tanzania for close to three years now. We have taken part in some wakes, but we just returned from our first funeral, a professor from Tumaini University whose family lives in Mwanga, just 50km north of Same. Professor Mshana was a dear person, a respected educator, and without doubt, a beloved member of his large family and wide range of friends.

In our western culture, there are several ways in which funerals and burials are carried out. In Tanzania, the common method of burial is by internment into the ground via a wooden casket in a cemetery or family plot. If the death occurs in a large city, the body is taken to a hospital where an autopsy or other tests may be performed. The body is then prepared for a funeral which may be scheduled for 3-4 days following the death. In the rural areas, the body may not be prepared, it may rest in a sitting room of a relative for the family members, and the burial may occur within 48 or even 24 hours of the death. The wealth of the family comes into play with most of this process. Yesterday, the day of the funeral, we gathered at the family home of Prof Mshana, waited under tents in the compound, then were served a lunch before the Lutheran Funeral Service mid-afternoon. During the day, the women family members are not mixing with the guests. They may be gathered together, the casket lying in one of the sitting rooms. The sons, brothers, cousins and nephews of the deceased welcome and take care of guests as they arrive and gather. There were buses parked outside the home from Iringa and Dar es Salaam which transported many mourners.

After the luncheon where we all ate rice, beans, cooked cabbage and pieces of meat with our hands, we filed outside the home and prepared for the funeral procession to the church. We followed the open bed truck which carried the casket piled with pallbearers and flowers to the Lutheran Church. The funeral service lasted over 1-1/2 hours. We sang some hymns, heard a hope-filled eulogy, heard from representatives from organizations as they offered words and a memorial, and then filed by the open casket on the way outside the church. There was a long procession of cars and buses from the church to the cemetery, only 4 kilometers away. We gathered around the prepared grave, some words and prayers were offered by the Assistant Bishop and presiding pastor, and then the casket was lowered into the ground. More prayers and songs, then a group of hired men proceeded to put planks of wood and a grid of iron bars over the grave and started mixing concrete. The process of mixing concrete with shovels and buckets of water for the lid of the grave vault took over forty five minutes. The crowd of people watched, commented on the amount of sand or concrete or the way it was being finished, and then the service continued. More words from the sons of the deceased, and then flower arrangements were placed on the newly poured concrete. Final prayers and a song by the church choir were offered, then the final blessing.

All departed, knowing that the deceased was indeed the person in the casket, completely sealed and interred in the ground in a cemetery in Mwanga.